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Satellite systems

Crop imagery from satellites is available from many companies across the U.S. and worldwide. Images taken at 16-day intervals by the same Landsat satellites often are available from multiple sources. Large U.S. satellite imagery providers include TerraServer (www.terraserver.com), Satellite Imaging Corporation (www.satimagingcorp.com) and Agri ImaGIS Technologies (www.satshot.com).

Smaller, more maneuverable satellites have been launched by private companies in recent years, including Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (www.sst-us.com) and RapidEye AG (www.rapideye.de). These satellites will shoot images of key agricultural areas more often, says Faleide of Agri ImaGIS Technologies. “Our goal within the next couple of years is to be able to provide new images of the same Corn Belt geography every three to four days,” he says.